Finally - Bush did something good !

[Defiant]

Q,
If the world beats the USA on technology more power to them, our own fault, but paying children 50 cents a day or something like that and putting workers out here, that is my problem and I think that is most of the problem. We will get out techno'd for a while but not for long and that is a fair fight but not the latter I mentioned, that's bullsh!t.

[Q Classic]

i'll grant you that paying 50 cents to kids is bad and it is bull****.

on the other hand, that's how all industrialized societies bootstrapped themselves into this position. sweatshops, alas, are an unfortunate consequence of industrialization as jobs appear in cities, with a glut of workers coming in from the rural areas.

[Bereta_Eder]

Well.. what do you know.. EU blackmail actually works...

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by Defiant

At least Dell is bringing some work back home from India.

Dont be mistaken, the reason why Dell made this decision was not to please US workers, but because the customers were not satisfied with the quality of the service rendered by the Indian phone center.

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
i'll grant you that paying 50 cents to kids is bad and it is bull****.

on the other hand, that's how all industrialized societies bootstrapped themselves into this position. sweatshops, alas, are an unfortunate consequence of industrialization as jobs appear in cities, with a glut of workers coming in from the rural areas.

About 80 years ago, at 12, my mother entered the work market, and she was likely paid in the same range. The countries doing that now will probably need less time to increase the salaries to decent levels.

It is not reasonnable to forbid that kind of work without offering to the families concerned an equivalent income, because they need it.

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by paiktis22
Well.. what do you know.. EU blackmail actually works...

Sure, but EU had previously killed considerable over capacities, specialized in hight quality steels, and restructured the whole european industry. All that had a hight cost in term of job.

Arcelor is the result of the merging of three companies (Spanish, French and Luxembourgian) and is presumably a world leader.

Low quality steels can now be made by less advanced countries and imported without destroying jobs.

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by DAVOUT


Sure, but EU had previously killed considerable over capacities, specialized in hight quality steels, and restructured the whole european industry. All that had a hight cost in term of job.

Never said anything different. Besides that was reflected in the WTO ruling anyway. It was a given. Let's face it Bush thought he could play superpower but got his arse vandalized. Just another case of EU getting its way through the WTO.
(for which, coincidently, I nucture no sympathy let me tell you generally).

BTW it would be interesting to see how this plays with the american electorate.

[DAVOUT]

I wonder if Defiant is representative of the american electorate ?

[Ben Kenobi]

I did this morning.

I promptly bumped my thread after I saw your post, Japher.

[Sava]

lippy? LIPPY?

[orange]

[Ned]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Why should Bush get credit for "doing something good," when he was the one who imposed the stupid tariff in the first place?

YAY! BUSH RECTIFIED HIS OWN BONEHEADED MISTAKE TO AVERT AN OBVIOUS ECONOMIC DISASTER OF A TRADE WAR! SUCH GENIUS!!!

Dittos.

[Urban Ranger]

Just going to refute a couple of random points...

Originally posted by Defiant
It is not just the steel workers, all imports, look at the back of the items you buy in the next week, I doubt you will see anything from Europe or Japan

Last I heard, Japan has a huge trade surplus with the US. Now where could all that come from?

Originally posted by Defiant
try Asia, Phillipines and Mexico

Last I heard, Japan is in Asia

Originally posted by Defiant
You want to know why this country is losing jobs, you can try and blame Bush but you're an idiot if you do

Strawman.

[Sava]

You want to know why this country is losing jobs, you can try and blame Bush but you're an idiot if you do

yes, because Bush has excellent economic policies that create an environment friendly to the American worker...



Say that outloud... it's so stupid it sounds funny!

[el freako]

The reason that the US is running such a big trade deficit is not due to foreign competition, but due to the death of savings in the US.

When you look at the current account balance it has a counterpart, the capital account balance.
If a country runs a current account deficit (more imports than exports) then it must run a capital account surplus (more capital coming in from overseas than going out) of equal size.
The gap between imports and exports is the same as the gap between what a nation saves and what it invests.

The US's trade balance went into deficit not because of a fall in exports (which is what you would expect if foreign markets become more protected) but due to a surge in imports.
Similarly the rise in the capital account surplus is due to a collapse in saving not a rise in investment (indeed investment is still below it's peak in 2000).

The way to set things right is for:
i) American consumers to stop borrowing and repair their balance sheets
ii) The US government to improve it's budget deficit